The Construction Specifications Institute (CSI) recently presented the Michelangelo Award, its highest honor, to M. Arthur Gensler Jr., FAIA, FIIDA, RIBA, founder and chairman of renowned international architecture firm Gensler. The award, given annually, recognizes individuals in the design and construction professions for a lifetime of distinguished, innovative, and far-reaching service.
CSI says it chose Gensler for this award because of his standing as a transformative figure in the industry. Among other achievements in a career spanning more than 40 years, he was an early pioneer in modern workspace design, and he advanced the use of interdisciplinary design teams.
Gensler is a charter member of Interior Design magazine’s Hall of Fame, a recipient of the International Interior Design Association’s Star Award, and a recipient of Ernst & Young’s Lifetime Achievement Award and the Cornell Entrepreneur of the Year Award from Cornell University.
Gensler founded his firm in San Francisco in 1965 as a three-person office; it has since grown to a company of more than 3,000 employees in 31 offices around the United States and the world. Gensler’s wide-ranging scope of work includes airports, retail, entertainment venues, educational facilities, civic/community buildings, hospitality, and mixed-use developments. Clients represent a cross-section of the global economy, ranging from large to small, public to private, for-profit and nonprofit.